three days on a chain gang part 4

three days on a chain gang
fiction
edward w pritchard



I found my notes from what Ed Williams told me one day when we worked together picking up papers out on Route 30 back then in the 1980's. He was brooding that there was so much suffering everywhere. He refused to be comforted I remember by the fact that 80% of everybody was doing fine.  He was 61 years old I remember and had spent his life reading ten thousand books. While everyone else was happy he saw the blue part of the world.







Why I have the blues sometimes


a work of tired satire,
why do so many people suffer
how do we accept suffering without religion, without the promise that
salvation later makes up for suffering now and our pathetic woes in the here and now should be endured
can we take solace in the philosophy of the greatest good for the greatest number?
 

sub title
There's Just too Many People

fiction/ writing as
edward williams

The problem with my Country of America is there's just too many people. We the People have so successfully conquered our environment here in America that we have overfilled everything and there are no natural enemies, no wars and no epidemics too cull the herds of people. No better example in history of a successful prosperous society has existed than our American society now. Three hundred million Americans in aggregate have conquered and controlled our environment overly successfully.

The problem is in any environment a species has a lot members who can't cut it. The unsuccessful. Those who believe in evolutionary theories think five or ten or twenty percent of the species who aren't the elite physically, mentally or psychologically are culled by the invisible forces of survival of the fittest. To keep the numbers manageable and ideal in the environment nature eliminates the weak. Unfortunately with humans now those unsuccessful don't just disappear like animals out on the savanna. What to do with those who can't cut it, can't make the grade in the schools, the workforce, or the jungle of accumulating and investing money to provide security for their some-day. How do we get rid in American society of the unsuccessful members who are economically and physically weak.

The schools have a certain percentage of students who just can't cut it. Some students can't sit in a chair for a whole class period, won't or can't call the Teacher Mr. or Mrs., they just can't conform. What are we to do with students who can't sacrifice today to prepare for tomorrow's challenges. A certain percentage of students can't conform and since they don't conform they don't prepare and the unprepared students don't ever reap tomorrow's harvest. Twenty percent of America's students don't cut it.

The workforce has a certain percentage of workers who can't stay in a job. Can't call the boss or owner Mr. or Mrs., can't work a whole shift, can't stay in their own field no matter what and if their field disappears can't retrain successfully. What happens to the twenty percent of American workers Who can't successful retrain and successfully pick the next right work-field to be in?

Twenty percent of Americans in all endeavors can't cut it. It's the natural order of things. What to do with twenty percent of the three hundred million Americans who can't cut it and who the Country doesn't want to carry? Families won't take care of their own anymore, churches can't be expected to take care of sixty million Americans who can't cut it. Government made too many promises already; Government they can't take care of fifty million Americans.

. What to do with the sixty million Americans who can't cut it.

Nature won't help it seems. It's been a long time since anything bad enough happened to cull off sixty million Americans. If something did happen to kill off sixty million, something  real real bad, the rest of the surviving Americans would have to deal with the loss of one fifth of their Countrymen. The weak it's true but some of them would be missed and such a loss would  make some of us sad.

Perhaps America should start changing our philosophy now to prepare for the worse, the reduction of a large number of our population by a catastrophic event, be it maybe inevitable.

Let's look to one of our Asian neighbors with a successful long history as a society. India has a five thousand year history. How did the Country of India in the past deal with a similar problem to what we discuss here. How did the Country of India develop a philosophy to promote individual success among it's elite members that would enable them to turn a blind eye to the suffering of a large number of people at hand but out of sight, even though that large number of people was right in their midst?

Interestingly one of ancient India's philosophies called Artha focuses in part on how should the individual act to succeed in life and society. What's the best philosophy for an individual to acquire towards others who are the unfortunates in society according to one of the ancient philosophies of India. It's simple, says an ancient philosophy of India. Just look upon them [  the unsuccessful in society] like you would look upon on a door. Treat everyone else like you would a door. As an object. Then you can be successful in life without feeling undo conscious toward the misfortunes and woes suffered by the weak in society.

When you must speak of the suffering of others speak as you have steeled your heart to say, through conformity to the general rules, designed to  enable you to succeed, and not be unduly concerned with what you see of the woes of others around you. By all means do not speak your heart or your feelings but act expediently to promote the general good for the greatest number of people in society. Then you can take heart in the fact that 80% of the folk will be successfully educated, successfully working, and successfully happy in life. That is the greatest good for the greatest number.